


raised to be admired

by itsallanoxymoron



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, i don't know what i'm doing lmao, i'm a trashcan but that's nothing new, idk what otp that they should have so that's subject to change, jemma is an 0-8-4, otp: opposites attract
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 03:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2716517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsallanoxymoron/pseuds/itsallanoxymoron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What do you see?” he asks. | Jemma and Bakshi, at the beginning and the end of everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	raised to be admired

**Author's Note:**

> title from Lorde's Bravado
> 
> AU in which Jemma is some sort of O-8-4
> 
> unbeta'd
> 
> i dont know what characterization is oop; sos i didn't even really focus on prose which is my main thing; i'll probably have better stuff for this pairing sometime

 

 She saves him from a bullet in the back.

This is how it starts.

* * *

“Bakshi,” she says, eyes bright with wonder. It sounds like she has waited her whole life to say that to him.

“Who are you?” he asks, voice tight and gun ready. “How did you find me? How do you know me?”

“I saw you,” answers Jemma. “I know you. I'm your soul mate.”

* * *

“Why did you save me?” he demands, later on, after they've evacuated the area. The safe house they're in hasn't been used for at least a decade and   _probably_  isn't bugged by anyone—Hydra or otherwise. It is a safe house, after all. Bakshi still checks, though, a force of habit.

She sighs, exasperated. “ _ I _ _ told you _ ,” Jemma says, as if she's talking to a child—which, given her IQ, she might as well be. She kicks off her shoes as Bakshi begins to heat up some canned soup. “I saw you.”

“What did you see?” he asks. He's curious. Normally, if someone trailed him and managed to sneak up on him, they would have ended up missing. But this woman, who isn't even five and a half feet, doesn't seem dangerous at all. She looks like she needs protecting. He tells himself that isn't why he's spared her; that it's because he's tired and she looks like she'd be a mess and he isn't possibly in the mood for cleaning up  _ that _ . Bakshi's quite the perfectionist; he loves the art of killing but hates the clean up because it becomes so tedious.

“The world was on fire,” Jemma answers, “and we were the only thing left in the ashes.”

* * *

 He doesn't believe in soul mates.

Well, he didn't. But Jemma's here now and she tells him to open his mind because   _I didn't believe in magic and look where I am now_ .

“You still don't believe in magic,” he points out.

She looks offended. “I do too! I just believe there's . . . another word for it.”

“Science.”

“Well,   _yes_ . They're the same thing, really. Magic  _ is _  science—and back when people didn't know any better, they called science   _magic_ . Besides, there are plenty of theories about magic. I don't know any particulars, of course—that wasn't my career path—but I know enough to know that magic and science are the same thing. Therefore, by the transitive property, I believe in magic.”

Bakshi sighs. “Alright,” he says, if only to see Jemma's pleased smirk when he continues, “you believe in magic.”

He doesn't believe in soul mates but, well, he believes in Jemma.

She's here, after all. 

* * *

They don't leave the safe house. Bakshi refuses to, says that even though it's been a week they'd better be careful. He doesn't tell Jemma that it's really because he doesn't trust her yet. She swears she has an apartment in the city that's “better than this mess of a place”, but he finds excuses anyways.

“So,” asks Jemma, “whose safe house is this? Whom do you work for?” She crosses her arms in mock interrogation. She proceeds to jump onto the counter, though, so it really loses its effect.

Bakshi studies her intently. Jemma can be so childish, sometimes. She mentioned once that she graduated fairly young; he forgets that, sometimes. “I work for a company called HYDRA.”

“Oh.” Bakshi raises an eyebrow. “It's just—I worked for SHIELD, before—well, before it fell . . .” She trails off.

How interesting. “And?” 

“And my team died, so I traveled on my own for a while, and then I discovered that I have powers and am, quite probably, an alien.”

He grins, baring his teeth, reminiscent of a hyena. “You're an interesting one, aren't you?”

She smiles like she appreciates the compliment. “You're not so bad yourself—for HYDRA.” Then Jemma jumps down from the counter and grins. “I'll make dinner. How does canned soup sound to you?” It's been their diet for the whole of their stay at the safe house.

Bakshi smiles without teeth and doesn't say a word.

It's been odd, practically rooming with a top HYDRA agent. Jemma never thought she could be so—so  _civil_  towards one. Fitz would never have approved. The whole team would have been astounded that she has lasted this long on her own. 

She should hate him. After all, his organization killed her friends, her family. It turned Ward into a traitor. But Jemma can't imagine Bakshi being the one to pull the trigger; it's always people in masks. She supposes it wouldn't do anything for their relationship if Bakshi was the one who killed her family. Soul mates are supposed to get along, aren't they?

Jemma never would have thought that a  _ Hydra _ agent could be her soul mate. If anyone, she would have guessed Fitz. Whatever souls were made of, theirs were the same. They were very similar, cognitively speaking. Skye once called them “physically linked.”

But that was before.

Simmons sighs. She misses her team.

**Author's Note:**

> this is trash but i really wanted to post it because i’ve been feeling shitty and i wanted this done
> 
> it didn’t really turn out the way i thought it would though and i’m not sure how i feel about that
> 
> also there's probably going to be more to this (there is)


End file.
